From an item on Tuesday night’s council agenda about a planned reconfiguration of the San Fernando/Burbank Blvds intersection.

The project will add geometrical improvements including:

Addition of a second dedicated right turn lane to the southbound approach of San Fernando Boulevard at Burbank Boulevard for a total of two right turn lanes, one through lane, and one left turn lane.

Widening of the west leg of the intersection to provide three westbound through lanes on Burbank Boulevard between San Fernando Boulevard and Interstate 5.

Addition of a through lane will better align with the lanes immediately west of the intersection as part of the Caltrans Interstate 5 High Occupancy Vehicle / Empire Interchange Project currently under construction.

Additional turning lanes on SF, and a third lane down Burbank.

That’s a lot of anticipated traffic in the area rushing to the freeway or the Flatlands/Empire Center.

And so … let’s put some bicycle lanes smack dab in the middle!

Along with providing vehicle circulation improvements, this is also a Complete Streets project that makes improvements to other travel modes as well. This project will provide the following improvements:

– an expanded bus passenger waiting area for an existing Metro/Burbank Bus stop on the north side of Burbank Boulevard west of San Fernando Boulevard

– various traffic signal improvements necessary to accommodate the new intersection geometry.

– the addition of bicycle lanes on San Fernando Boulevard between Walnut Street and Grinnell Drive, providing a continuous bicycle connection from Downtown Burbank to the Empire Center via the new Empire Interchange. Bicycle lanes are also planned on Burbank Boulevard between San Fernando Boulevard and Third Street to connect to existing lanes on Third Street.

All that approaching traffic in one of the busiest intersections in town. All those new traffic lanes. And then all those anticipated bikes on all those new bike lanes directly crossing all that fun.

What could go wrong?

Imagine trying to go on a bike from Zankou to Barnes and Noble or beyond after those two SF right-turn lanes get put in. How’s that going to be done?

11 responses to “With these big new changes in traffic control, who in their right mind would ride a bike down those streets?”

i cycle across burbank blvd bridge every day from the flats to the hills and back.
it’s crazy with the restriping they did for the closure on front street.
i got them to install a share the road sign to remind drivers of cyclists.
that was run over and destroyed. took many phone calls but its back up.
cycling anywhere around there is not recommended for the meek.

Any parent who allows a child to ride a bike in traffic must hate their child and any parent who rides a bike should have a very large life insurance policy to provide for their children after they are killed on their bike.

I figured that as soon as somebody died on one of those unprotected bike lanes the city keeps installing (and it was a matter of time, really) the City Council would finally get serious about adding PROTECTED bike lanes, which put a barrier between cars and bikes. (They did this in NYC where ten years ago riding your bike through midtown would have been certain suicide). But, apparently, I figured wrong. Right, City Council? Let’s keep building these massive apartment complexes insisting all the while that it won’t impact traffic and we don’t need parking — because, hey, people can just ride their bikes to work! And let’s pretend we don’t realize how dangerous these bike lanes are.

This entire matter of unsafe bike lanes is beyond outrageous. This is not a city in the country. Disrespecting residents and condescending to the masses is one thing but, not protecting their lives is another.